What is Sata/mSata and eSata and why would I need them?

[GFroun]

Hey guys,

So I'm trying to buy my parts for my first ever build and I've come across a small road block with motherboards and which type to get for an intel i5 3570k which I will be overclocking.

My question is, what is eSata/mSata and Sata and why would I need them in a mobo? I'm looking for an ATX mother board and will pay around $150-$160 (Canadian) if anyone has any suggestions. I will be using an SSD, maybe 2 in the future as well as a regular HDD, I've read somewhere that they relate, I just don't know how and thought it'd be useful to mention it.

Thanks for the help

 

[mbreslin1954]

An mSATA drive is a solid state drive that has a very small form factor. It looks like a large integrated circuit, it's basically an SSD without the 2.5" housing. It originally was a relatively small size, typically 16 GB or 32 GB, and was used to cache the hard drive. That is, it would hold the initial boot files of the operating system and the most used application programs, thereby speeding up the boot process and some program load times (depending on how much cache was in the drive). However, now with larger mSATA drives of 128 GB or more, they can be used as a regular SSD to hold the operating system on instead being used to cache a hard drive.

eSATA stands for "external SATA". It is a way to connect external hard drives to a system. It allows native SATA speeds for external drives. It is less important now that USB 3 is out, but for years I've used eSATA for backing up my family's PCs. I built external hard drives with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, connect the eSATA to the PC, and instead of the typical USB 2 speeds of 24-30 MB/s, eSATA gives me anywhere from 80-97 MB/s throughput (I use a 1 TB HDD in my external enclosure).

If you are using an SSD in your new system, you do not need mSATA. I would not use an mSATA drive for my main drive as I don't believe they are as fast as an SSD, but if you don't have or can't afford a large SSD, mSATA to cache a HDD is the next best thing.

If you're building a new system it most likely has USB 3.0, and most external drives you are likely to buy now will come with USB 3, so eSATA is probably not necessary either.

Just my two cents.

 

[Robert Pankiw]

Hey GFroun, SATA is the main connection type for interal drives like SSDs and HDDs.
mSATA is a mini version, used for WiFi cards, but also for internal storage (though much less common than SATA). Edit: It can be used for WiFi cards if wired for that, however, most are not. Thanks to k1114 for pointing this out to me.
eSATA is the external version.

If you are getting multiple SSDs, make sure the motherboard has more than 1 SATA 3 port (Sometimes labelled at SATA 6GB/s, SATA 2 might be labelled as SATA 3GB/s). Plug your hard drives into either the SATA 2 or 3 ports, and your SSDs into SATA 3 ports.

Hope that was clear!

 

[legendkiller]

Depending on what your doing, eSATA may be useless, it's on the back, you wont be using those so dont bother. SATA is where all your HDD/SSD will be connected too.
check this guy out and check out his other videos, they are very helpful especially when your new to building one...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csqnK_CwKrQ&list=UU0vBXGSyV14uvJ4hECDOl0Q&index=13
also i'd recommend you wait for MSI G-series IF your a gamer
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/MSI-Z77-Gaming-Motherboard,21855.html
they take out stuff like eSATA because "Gamers/Enthusiast" wont be using it because it wont be benefiting the user unless they do something else.

 

[k1114]

mSATA is a mini version, used for WiFi cards, but also for internal storage (though much less common than SATA).

Wifi cards are actually mpcie. It is the same connection but not compatible with each other. But most mobos are manufactured so it is wired up to both sata and pcie controllers so it accepts both. Msata is usually not found on desktops.

 

[Robert Pankiw]

I didn't know that the wiring was different, thanks for clarifying that k1114!

But mSATA is becoming more popular. This motherboard from Gigabyte has mSATA on it, and according to the NewEgg Canada Page for Above Motherboard it is right in the OPs price range, so it is relevant to him/her. It's common for manufactures to try and differentiate their products as features become common. I expect in the near future (that is, 1 or 2 rounds of product releases) nearly every manufacturer will have a motherboard in their lineup, if they don't already, that has mSATA.

 

[mbreslin1954]

I have a Gigabyte board, over a year old, that has an mSATA slot in it, and I doubt it's wired for wifi.

 

[GFroun]

Thanks a lot guys for all the answers, I really do appreciate the help

 

[GFroun]

Hey GFroun, SATA is the main connection type for interal drives like SSDs and HDDs.
mSATA is a mini version, used for WiFi cards, but also for internal storage (though much less common than SATA). Edit: It can be used for WiFi cards if wired for that, however, most are not. Thanks to k1114 for pointing this out to me.
eSATA is the external version.

If you are getting multiple SSDs, make sure the motherboard has more than 1 SATA 3 port (Sometimes labelled at SATA 6GB/s, SATA 2 might be labelled as SATA 3GB/s). Plug your hard drives into either the SATA 2 or 3 ports, and your SSDs into SATA 3 ports.

Hope that was clear!

That's pretty much exactly what I wanted to know, because the motherboards that I'm looking at have Sata 6GB/s and Sata 3GB/s, and I wanted to know why I would need 4 or 2 or whatever number of ports in the first place. Now I know what to go for as I have an idea of how many SSD's and Hard drives I'd want for my build long term thanks to your answer.

Also, If I want to buy a Wifi card, which I most probably will, then I'd need to look for a motherboard with an mSata port?

 

[GFroun]

Depending on what your doing, eSATA may be useless, it's on the back, you wont be using those so dont bother. SATA is where all your HDD/SSD will be connected too.
check this guy out and check out his other videos, they are very helpful especially when your new to building one...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csqnK_CwKrQ&list=UU0vBXGSyV14uvJ4hECDOl0Q&index=13
also i'd recommend you wait for MSI G-series IF your a gamer
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/MSI-Z77-Gaming-Motherboard,21855.html
they take out stuff like eSATA because "Gamers/Enthusiast" wont be using it because it wont be benefiting the user unless they do something else.

Thank you for this, I'll definitely check it out.

 

[GFroun]

An mSATA drive is a solid state drive that has a very small form factor. It looks like a large integrated circuit, it's basically an SSD without the 2.5" housing. It originally was a relatively small size, typically 16 GB or 32 GB, and was used to cache the hard drive. That is, it would hold the initial boot files of the operating system and the most used application programs, thereby speeding up the boot process and some program load times (depending on how much cache was in the drive). However, now with larger mSATA drives of 128 GB or more, they can be used as a regular SSD to hold the operating system on instead being used to cache a hard drive.

eSATA stands for "external SATA". It is a way to connect external hard drives to a system. It allows native SATA speeds for external drives. It is less important now that USB 3 is out, but for years I've used eSATA for backing up my family's PCs. I built external hard drives with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, connect the eSATA to the PC, and instead of the typical USB 2 speeds of 24-30 MB/s, eSATA gives me anywhere from 80-97 MB/s throughput (I use a 1 TB HDD in my external enclosure).

If you are using an SSD in your new system, you do not need mSATA. I would not use an mSATA drive for my main drive as I don't believe they are as fast as an SSD, but if you don't have or can't afford a large SSD, mSATA to cache a HDD is the next best thing.

If you're building a new system it most likely has USB 3.0, and most external drives you are likely to buy now will come with USB 3, so eSATA is probably not necessary either.

Just my two cents.

I'm looking to go hybrid by using both an SSD as well as a HDD, in that case, I'd need a motherboard with mSata right?

 

[mbreslin1954]

If you're booting from a SSD, I don't think you can use the mSATA drive as a cache drive for another, secondary, HDD. I doubt it would work. The only way a mSATA cache drive works as a cache drive for the boot drive is because you set it up for that in BIOS, then you must also run Intel software to partition and format it properly so it functions as cache for the boot drive. I don't think the Intel caching software is set up to do that for a secondary, non-boot HDD, and neither is BIOS.

Everything about a mSATA drive is geared to caching the boot drive, not a secondary drive. But I'm willing to be corrected by someone who knows more than I do.

 

[GFroun]

If you're booting from a SSD, I don't think you can use the mSATA drive as a cache drive for another, secondary, HDD. I doubt it would work. The only way a mSATA cache drive works as a cache drive for the boot drive is because you set it up for that in BIOS, then you must also run Intel software to partition and format it properly so it functions as cache for the boot drive. I don't think the Intel caching software is set up to do that for a secondary, non-boot HDD, and neither is BIOS.

Everything about a mSATA drive is geared to caching the boot drive, not a secondary drive. But I'm willing to be corrected by someone who knows more than I do.

Ok, I think I'm getting it, but picture this scenario, I buy an Asrock Z77 extreme 4 which has:

4 Sata 3GB/s
4 Sata 6GB/s
1 eSata 6Gb/s

Where would you recommend me put my SSD and HDD?

 

[mbreslin1954]

The SSD should definitely go on one of the 6 GB/s ports, as the SSD will be throttled by the 3 GB/s ports. A HDD cannot reach the throughput of a 3 GB/s SATA port, so you can put the HDD wherever you want. It will do just fine on a 3 GB/s port, but it sounds like you'll have plenty of 6 GB/s ports, so it's up to you.

 

[k1114]

Just put everything in sata 6gb/s. If you use all 4 of them, hdds and dvd drives don't fully use the bandwidth so would have no performance difference in sata 3gb/s so you could change those.

Wireless cards do not use msata, the ones of that form factor are mpcie which you usually won't find on a desktop. If you get a wireless card, you would get one for pci, pcie or usb.

Btw GB is gigabytes and speeds are in bits; Gb. Not that it really matters, I just put gb most of the time for everything.

 

[mbreslin1954]

Your right! Sorry! I should have put 3 Gbps and 6 Gbps. My bad. Yes, if I had his motherboard and less than five drives, I would plug them all into the 6 Gbps SATA ports.

 

[Cube_of_Rubik]

Hey GFroun, SATA is the main connection type for interal drives like SSDs and HDDs.
mSATA is a mini version, used for WiFi cards, but also for internal storage (though much less common than SATA). Edit: It can be used for WiFi cards if wired for that, however, most are not. Thanks to k1114 for pointing this out to me.
eSATA is the external version.

If you are getting multiple SSDs, make sure the motherboard has more than 1 SATA 3 port (Sometimes labelled at SATA 6GB/s, SATA 2 might be labelled as SATA 3GB/s). Plug your hard drives into either the SATA 2 or 3 ports, and your SSDs into SATA 3 ports.

Hope that was clear!

Does my motherboard need to have mSATA when I'm going to use a 2.0 USB Wifi adapter?

 

[mbreslin1954]

No, you don't need an mSATA port.

 

[k1114]

Msata is just a form factor, treat it as just another port to plug in another hdd/ssd. It is NOT for wifi cards which use mpcie. This is simply because sata is storage io only.

 

[Ash Aggarwal]

An mSATA drive is a solid state drive that has a very small form factor. It looks like a large integrated circuit, it's basically an SSD without the 2.5" housing. It originally was a relatively small size, typically 16 GB or 32 GB, and was used to cache the hard drive. That is, it would hold the initial boot files of the operating system and the most used application programs, thereby speeding up the boot process and some program load times (depending on how much cache was in the drive). However, now with larger mSATA drives of 128 GB or more, they can be used as a regular SSD to hold the operating system on instead being used to cache a hard drive.

eSATA stands for "external SATA". It is a way to connect external hard drives to a system. It allows native SATA speeds for external drives. It is less important now that USB 3 is out, but for years I've used eSATA for backing up my family's PCs. I built external hard drives with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports, connect the eSATA to the PC, and instead of the typical USB 2 speeds of 24-30 MB/s, eSATA gives me anywhere from 80-97 MB/s throughput (I use a 1 TB HDD in my external enclosure).

If you are using an SSD in your new system, you do not need mSATA. I would not use an mSATA drive for my main drive as I don't believe they are as fast as an SSD, but if you don't have or can't afford a large SSD, mSATA to cache a HDD is the next best thing.

If you're building a new system it most likely has USB 3.0, and most external drives you are likely to buy now will come with USB 3, so eSATA is probably not necessary either.

Just my two cents.

i wanted to ask you that if i can connect an optical drive through an eSATA port instead of a normal one because all other 6 ports are 6 gbps and i want to connect hdd with them instead to get maximum speed. i assume eSATA has less speed than these others right?

 

[mbreslin1954]

I'm not sure what speed your eSATA has, it should be either 3 Gbps or 6 GBps. You'll have to check your motherboard documentation. It's basically the same as an internal SATA port on the motherboard, it just has a slightly different connector for external cables (as opposed to internal cables). E-SATA is for external devices with their own power supply, so if you're going to connect an optical drive to it then it must be an external optical drive, as opposed to the internal kind that you place into the front of a computer case (they get their power from the PC's power supply).

There's no reason to use an external optical drive with e-SATA unless all of your internet SATA ports are used up already with HDDs.

 

[Brian L Murphy]

Hey GFroun, SATA is the main connection type for interal drives like SSDs and HDDs.
mSATA is a mini version, used for WiFi cards, but also for internal storage (though much less common than SATA). Edit: It can be used for WiFi cards if wired for that, however, most are not. Thanks to k1114 for pointing this out to me.
eSATA is the external version.

If you are getting multiple SSDs, make sure the motherboard has more than 1 SATA 3 port (Sometimes labelled at SATA 6GB/s, SATA 2 might be labelled as SATA 3GB/s). Plug your hard drives into either the SATA 2 or 3 ports, and your SSDs into SATA 3 ports.

Hope that was clear!

I noticed that the Asus Maximus V Extreme has a slot for a msata card. But there is no data on how it is to be used. Any ideas?

 

[mbreslin1954]

It's just another form factor for storage. If you want to purchase an mSATA drive, then you'd plug it into the mSATA slot. If you want to do that, get a big enough one to install Windows from and boot from it. I'd go with at least 128 GB. Check with your motherboard to make sure there are no size limitations on what you put in there. Or don't use it, you don't have to use it, it's just there for your convenience in case you want to.

 

[Gashgrazer]

I just put an msata in a Z77-D3H(128gig) and have a 2TB drive for my games and media. The computer is so much faster now but by putting in the msata it made three of my esata ports redundant
.